Carl Renner has been charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two misdemeanor counts of domestic violence. Provided

Carl Renner has been charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two misdemeanor counts of domestic violence. Provided

Belleville

A Belleville funeral home director faces felony charges after he allegedly broke into his estranged wife’s house and beat her with a baseball bat, police reported.

Carl J. Renner, 56, of Belleville, has been accused of breaking into a house in unincorporated St. Clair County early Thursday morning and attacking his 62-year-old estranged wife with a baseball bat.

“While in the house it is alleged that the victim was struck on the head with a bat and scratched during an altercation with the two,” according to a statement from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department.

Renner was arrested at his home. He has been charged with one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, a Class 3 felony; and two counts of domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor. Bail was set at $30,000; he posted bond and has been released from the St. Clair County Jail.

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Renner is one of the directors of Renner Funeral Homes in Belleville. According to the company's website, he is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and has been a licensed funeral director since 1983. Representatives of the funeral home declined to comment.

According to the woman’s statement filed in St. Clair County Court, Renner attacked her with an aluminum baseball bat, hitting her multiple times and knocking her down a staircase before pressing the bat across her neck as she lay on the floor. She said he warned her to be out of the house in three weeks and to drop their ongoing divorce proceedings in favor of settling out of court.

After he left, she fled to her sister’s house, and then to the hospital, she said. The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department was summoned to the hospital to investigate the attack.

The woman was treated and released at an area hospital. The court has granted an emergency order of protection instructing Renner to stay away from her at home and work.

Whether someone has asked you for help or you sense someone is in distress, here are some general guidelines to help support possible victims of abuse, be it physical, emotional, sexual, psychological or financial.

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